There is an ongoing need in the field of packaging for a container (e.g., a tray that may optionally include a lid) configured for functioning as a tray for display and/or containment of an article, such as a consumer product. There is an ongoing need for an alternative container that is capable of being printed on one or both sides of any paperboard used for making the product (e.g., by pixilated type printing, such as ink-jet, laser jet or other suitable printing devices, by screen printing, or other printing). There is also an ongoing need for a container that can be made from a single sheet of stock material, such as a paperboard material. There is also an ongoing need for a container that is capable of supporting loads from one or more contained articles, without buckling or otherwise plastically deforming from the load of the one or more contained articles.
In many applications, containers are used for holding articles temporarily. When the article is removed from the container, there may be a need to identify the article. One approach to identifying an article is to use a separate label and to place the label on the container, in the container, or near the article in the container. However, such a label may fall of, or otherwise become separated from the container, separated from the article, or both.
Examples of an article with a separate label is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/155,705 filed on Jun. 8, 2011 by Vulgamott at al., incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
There are also applications that could benefit by placing a plurality of different articles into the same container and require a means of distinguishing the different articles when they are removed from the container. The ability to distinguish different articles after removing them from a container may be particularly difficult when the articles have similar appearance or when specific information about the article is required. Instead, articles that are the same are often packaged together in the same container so that there is no need to distinguish between the articles. Although this may be useful when a plurality of identical articles are desired, there are problems with distinguishing articles when different articles are desired to be packaged together.
There is a need to solve these problems for identification of a single article after being removed from a container and/or for distinguishing between two or more different articles after being removed from a container.